The present invention relates to electrical connectors in general and, more particularly, to a genderless electrical contact having a planar electrical contact engaging surface.
Genderless electrical connectors are well known in the art. Representative examples of such connectors include the connectors manufactured and sold by the Anderson Power Product Division of High Voltage Engineering Corporation under the registered trademarks SB® and PowerPole®. The construction of the SB® electrical connector is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,909,099 issued Sep. 30, 1975 to Edward D. Winkler for “Electrical Connector With Movably Mounted Cable Clamp”. The subject matter of U.S. Pat. No. 3,909,099 is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. The construction of the PowerPole® electrical connectors is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,259,870 issued Jul. 5, 1966 to Edward D. Winkler for “Electrical Connector”. The subject matter of U.S. Pat. No. 3,259,870 is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
The Winkler electrical connectors employ a rigid terminal member or contact that is attached to a wire lead by soldering or crimping. The contact itself is mounted within a housing under a spring load. The contact normally has an arcuate distal end so that it will engage with a corresponding electrical contact with the arcuate ends overriding each other to a detent position.
This general type of genderless electrical contact also has been manufactured and sold with a planar distal surface and an arcuate distal end i.e., the SB®-50 and PowerPole®-75 electrical connectors. However, these connectors were not designed to maintain, nor did they maintain, the positional integrity of the electrical contact within the housing. The electrical contact was free to move within the housing so that initial electrical surface contact with another electrical contact varied in terms of where the initial contact actually occurred on the contact surfaces. This was not a problem because the connector was UL and CSA rated for disconnect use only.
With the advent of uninterruptable power supplies, the need has arisen for “hot swapable” power supplied for rechargeable batteries. The instantaneous “inrush” electrical current flow upon connection to a UPS circuit having capacitive/reactive components is well above the steady state current load after the component(s) have been charged. At this current level, arcing of the electrical connector contacts creates a significant problem with welding of the electrical contacts a not infrequent occurrence.
It is, accordingly, a general object of the invention to provide an improved genderless electrical connector for connect disconnect use under load.
It is a specific object of the invention to provide genderless electrical contacts that minimize contact “bounce”.
It is another object of the invention to provide an electrical connector having a genderless electrical contact with a planar contact engaging surface that is positionally maintained to provide repeatable mating with the planar contact engaging surface of a corresponding electrical connector.